Bitstream March/April 2013

Compiled by Brianna Snyder/Women@Work

Job Search 2.0

If you’re looking for a job and not having much luck, you might consider how much of your hunting is done online. According to NPR, 70 to 80 percent of jobs are never published on the web. What’s the solution? E-mail past employers and go to every networking event you can, and be aggressive. According to NPR’s experts, the best way to get a good job you want is to treat the hunt like a sales opportunity.

Digital Time Off

9 to 5

Working Women

Women have the best chance at a successful career if that career happens to be a physician, dentist or optometrist, according to Forbes. Jobs expert Laurence Shatkin, Ph.D., author of Best Jobs for the 21st Century, found that women in these positions reported the highest levels of career satisfaction, the highest median earnings (in 2011), strong projected growth through 2020 and the largest number of total annual openings, as tracked by the U.S. Department of Labor, Forbes reports. The study found women excelled and were happiest at jobs that gave them opportunities to practice their skills, enjoy job security and where communication between colleagues and management was strong.

The Ever-Yawning Gap

Photo: Emily Jahn/Women@Work

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the pay gap between men and women MBA graduates is growing. Ten years ago, top MBA graduates experienced almost no pay discrepancy at all. Today, however, women are making as little as 79 cents on every dollar paid to their male counterparts. The gap affects women in pursuit of finance jobs in particular, studies show. The theory is that after the 2008 crash, many — but especially women — fled finance, and women’s salaries plummeted as a result.

A study of 2010 census data by Bloomberg found that among the six categories with the largest gender gap in pay were insurance agents, personal advisers and securities sales agents. Women in those jobs earned 55 to 62 cents for every $1 men pulled in, the census data showed.

Doggin’ It

According to the Associated Press, 26 percent of Americans considered themselves procrastinators. In 1978, only 5 percent gave themselves that label. (And it turns out men do it more than women: 54 percent of self-identified putter-offers are men.) Blame it on Facebook and texting and Tivo. Whatever. The important question is how do you stop?

According to the health site Greatist.com, an effective strategy is to restart your day at 2 p.m.: “Don’t let the whole day be a wash if you fail to be productive in the morning. Re-assess what’s top priority in the afternoon and get it done with a fresh start,” the site says. If you can’t get yourself properly motivated to get work done on a big project, try accomplishing smaller tasks, Greatist recommends. Clear out your e-mail, file some old documents, be at least somewhat productive, which tends to spur more productivity.

“There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle, or the mirror that reflects it.”

– Edith Wharton

Watch What You Say

Want to talk smack about your boss on Facebook? Well, new regulations permit you do so, with some limitations. The New York Times reported earlier this year that the National Labor Relations Board, in a series of rulings, says that workers “have the right to discuss work conditions freely and without fear of retribution, whether the discussion takes place at the office or on Facebook.”

Federal law already protects workers’ speech — it’s OK to discuss work matters at the water cooler, even if it’s done in hushed tones. But new regulations forbid big companies from instating broad social-media policies that fire employees for posting “’disrespectful’ comments or posts that criticize the employer.”

For instance, in 2010, a caseworker at a nonprofit in Buffalo asked her colleagues on Facebook how they were feeling about their jobs. When three posted complaints, all were fired, in addition to the caseworker who posted the prompt. But a decision at the end of 2012 concluded their termination was unlawful. Their posts are classified “concerted activity for mutual aid,” the Times says.

But there are cases of firings over Facebook posts that are much more justified, the NYT says: a police reporter for the Arizona Daily Star posted “What?!?!?! No overnight homicide. … You’re slacking, Tuscon.” (The reporter was fired.) And a bartender in Illinois, angry because he hadn’t received a raise in five years, posted on Facebook that his customers are a bunch of rednecks, and he hoped they choked on glass as they drove home drunk. He was fired.

War of the Chores

Illustration: (c) Emily Jahn/Women@Work

Men are pitching in more now than they were in the 1970s — almost twice as much more, in fact — but women still do the majority of housework. Men spend about 14 hours a week doing domestic chores, while women do more like 17 hours. And, by the way, men spend about 50 more minutes than women a day on leisure activities, such as watching TV.